I don’t see a team in either conference that can impede and alter Anaheim’s path of destruction to the Stanley Cup championship. Having watched a couple dozen of their regular season games on TV, I knew that the Ducks were a solid, gritty. I was shocked that they laid waste to the Winnipeg Jets so effortlessly and methodically in the first round of the playoffs. The Ducks tore the wings off the Jets and pounded them into the ice with the rage and fury of 10,000 burning sons. The Ducks imposed their will and brute force on the Jets and claimed a four game tap-out series win. Mind you, the Jets plays are hard, physical, take-no-prisoners style themselves. The upstart Calgary Flames are next up on the Anaheim dance card. I foresee a similar outcome in that series. I’m not predicting a Ducks series sweep, however, I can see Getzlaf, Perry, Kesler, Beauchemin, Andersen leading their team to a series win in five games.
The unsung hero for the Ducks hasn’t been its forwards, not its D corps. It’s been their starting goaltender. Frederik Andersen is hotter than a pistol right now and is showing zero signs of cooling off. He allowed only nine goals against in the first round win over Winnipeg. His teammates scored him 16 goals in that series. Andersen was 4-0 against the Jets and his .924 save percentage on 118 shots faced was very impressive. His GAA is a so-so 2.20 heading into round two. The 25 year old Dane established himself as Anaheim’s number one goalie this season. He posted a 35-12-5 record (3 shutouts, 2.38 GAA, .914 save %)and stood tall in his net when he team needed a hero to stand up and claim the #1 goalie job. Injuries to the goalies and D corps and inconsistent play led Ducks head coach Bruce Boudreau to rotate Andersen with John Gibson and Jason Labarbera in the early stages of the season. Things got so tenuous for the Ducks that their GM Bob Murray even signed cosmonaut turned goalie-philosopher-astronomer Ilya Bryzgalov to a contract. That experiment ended predictably with Bryzgalov wearing out his welcome there. The Ducks scored 228 goals as a team this season while allowing an astonishing 221 goals against. Sorry folks, a +7 goal differential is not that of a Stanley Cup contender, right? Wrong. Credit Andersen for grinding and finding ways to win games despite the chaos that was happening in front of him on a nightly basis.
Andersen snatched the starting job and never gave it back. The Ducks have now set their goals to extinguishing the Flames. Andersen will have to be a difference maker against his former battery mate Jonas Hiller who has been all that and a bag of pucks for his Calgary Flames this season. It should be a dandy of a match-up between two physical teams who personify the pugnacity, truculence and violence that is the Brian Burke style.
Lost in all of the Andersen success is the development of their other goalie prospect John Gibson, who won’t see the net in a playoff game unless and until Andersen fails miserable. Gibson got his first exposure to the NHL playoffs last spring. He played well, however, his team fell prey to Western killers. The path to the Cup got exponentially easier for the Ducks with the first round exits of formidable foes the Winnipeg Jets, St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators. Boudreau is going to continue to ride the hot hand which means that Gibson will have to wear his ball cap and drink Gatorade for the next couple of months. Gibson will be 22 in July, and is looking for his big break to prove himself in the NHL. For the time being, he will be relegated to the #2 goalie position in Anaheim. That’s how the cookie crumbles on a veteran-leaden NHL team that was constructed to win a Stanley Cup title now. When this season ends, Gibson will have one year remaining on his entry level deal at a paltry $787,000.He has started just 26 games in the NHL, posting a 16-8 regular season record (2-2-playoff record) with a .919 save % and 2.45 save %.
It begs the question:
Tim Murray of the Buffalo Sabres has spoken with his former co-worker Bob Murray in the past. You’ll recall that Murray and Murray spoke last season about Tyler Myers. Tim Murray eventually traded the sky scraping D to Winnipeg in the Evander Kane deal when Bob Murray blinked first on a deal. I was hearing that Tim Murray was asking for Gibson, prospect Nick Ritchie, and D Sami Vatanen in a proposed deal. Murray keeps notes on all trade talks and proposals, verbal and otherwise and he knows the book on Gibson, having scouted him when he was a star with Team USA’s U20 WJC gold medal championship team as well as the Windsor Spitfires. Tim Murray has an itch in terms of his goaltending situation heading into 2015-15 training camp. Chad Johnson is the only tender contract. Murray has a short list of young goalies that he has compiled for this summer’s trade market. His list includes Gibson, Ottawa’s current third goalie Robin Lehner, Montreal’s prospect Zach Fucale, and Boston prospect Malcolm Subban. The two common denominators among these goalies are: they are young, they are stuck sitting behind more experienced goalies right now. The Ducks are going to have to re-up with Andersen who has one year remaining at $1.3 million. That would mean another season of Gibson sitting and watching, especially if Andersen wins the Stanley Cup this season. As for Lehner, he is buried behind pending UFA “The Hamburglar… and Sens veteran Craig Anderson who has three years left on his current deal at an affordable $3.5 million cap hit per season. In Boston, Tuuka Rask is the starter until further notice. Subban will be a spectator there until further notice, unless he is traded away for an opportunity with a young team like the Buffalo Sabres who are in desperate need for a starting goalie right now. The same situation applies to Fucale in Montreal. Carey Price is about to win the Hart Trophy, Vezina Trophy and may well end up winning the Conn Smythe Trophy if the Canadiens can advance to the Stanley Cup Finals and defeat the Ducks (my prediction weeks ago). Tim Murray has everything that a top goalie prospect could want in an NHL hockey team. He has a wide open net, a Brinks truck full of cash, and an opportunity for a young stud goalie to emerge from the shadows of his current employers and to rise to fame as the leader of a young, uber-talented squad in Buffalo.
Don’t worry, sports fans. Tim Murray has been working the phones. If he can't pry Gibson free from Anaheim, he has other options. He will not rest easily until he lands a young, big, difference-maker who can stop pucks. Gibson is at the top of his list.